PARTNER TESTIMONIALS

My time at Pearl Lemon has been an immense period of growth, learning, and self-improvement. When I first joined the company as part of the account management team, I was quickly thrown into the deep end of the fast-paced work environment. Although I had read up and had a basic understanding of the theory behind areas like SEO, social media management, and email marketing campaigns, I soon realized there was a massive gap between textbook knowledge and real-world application. I had far more questions than answers in those initial few weeks, but this intense learning environment enabled extremely accelerated professional and personal development.  

The high expectations and unrelenting deadlines forced me to expand my capabilities at a rapid pace. I went from feeling unsure and overwhelmed by the specifics of our work to being able to confidently discuss our campaigns, strategies, and results with clients in a relatively short period. Communication and presenting ideas have always been personal strengths, so keeping team members and clients constantly updated came naturally to me. I’ve always believed professionalism stems as much from attitude as aptitude and skills, but the real challenge during that initial period was grasping the detailed processes and information underlying our work.

One of the biggest lessons I learned from those early days is that there is almost always a more thoughtful, streamlined way to approach tasks than my instincts from past roles and academic experience have taught me. As an account management team, we had daily stand-up meetings with Dee to review client work, issues, and internal processes. It was eye-opening how often a task or campaign that seemed straightforward on the surface was revealed to be inefficient or cobbled-together as we analysed and discussed our workflow. This was sometimes an uncomfortable realisation, but the value of this regular group reflection exercise was undeniable. Sometimes the learning was relatively simple, like adding calendar reminders or snoozing mails to properly follow up on said emails, avoiding dropped tasks that could cost us a happy client. Other times, it led to deeper shifts in how I communicated with clients based on analysing past approaches that succeeded or failed.

The learning also often came from particularly unique client campaigns that took me far out of my comfort zone. One campaign centered on YouTube SEO, a very uncharted area at the time without much existing guidance or best practices. But despite venturing into the unknown, the core goal stayed the same: thoroughly understand the client’s business objectives, challenges, and needs, and then help drive measurable results. Being empowered with this kind of autonomy while also having strong support from the team was incredibly motivating, and allowed me to find real enjoyment and satisfaction in my work.

With all of that said, perhaps the greatest lesson from my time at Pearl Lemon has been developing flexibility, resilience, and the ability to deliver excellent work even in uncertain, rapidly shifting conditions. This adaptability applies to many aspects of both my life and work. I first started at Pearl Lemon while living in South Africa, employed as part of the account management team. I am now based in the United Kingdom, in North Wales of all places, heading up the newly launched legal consultancy. Before making this monumental move across the world, I also took another major personal step: I got married. I was extremely fortunate to be able to take some time completely off for this momentous life event with close friends and family. I came back feeling recharged and ready to take on new challenges.

In my short absence, things had evolved rapidly at Pearl Lemon, as they tend to do in such a dynamic workplace. The account management team had grown, both in number of employees and in skill level. However, there were gaps that needed filling from this expansion – mainly project management and legal sales outreach. 

As I returned to work with new responsibilities, I focused on improving processes and systems for the account management team while also making a few exploratory calls a day to legal inquiries we had received. I enjoyed this new challenge and the autonomy, but the legal inquiries were flooding in at an overwhelming rate. It quickly became obvious we needed to fully pivot to capture this unmet demand. My role changed again, now completely focused on legal sales and client acquisition.

At first, progress was slow and frustrating. There were certain traditional methods I was trying that just weren’t working as well as they could have in the UK market. For example, based on past sales experience, I would call a prospect directly and seek an in-person meeting. These unprompted “semi-cold calls” (semi because they had in fact reached out but wouldn’t necessarily recognise the number) sometimes resulted in meetings if I actually reached the prospect – but the UK business culture meant calls from an unknown number were often ignored or rejected. And the meetings were a bit hit and miss, with no consistent success rate. 

Through this trial and error, it became clear the most effective approach was not to try to demonstrate that I had all the answers. Rather, it was to show a genuine willingness to listen, empathise, and understand the prospect’s unique situation and goals. With guidance from Dee’s wealth of experience, we closed our first client deal during a simple initial virtual meeting. We successfully assisted the client in avoiding a major credit default – something they had struggled with unsuccessfully for over two years without making progress. This elated first client was proof positive that we could provide real value as a legal consultancy.

That initial client taught me so much, from proper document collection methods to techniques for seeking favorable resolutions through mediation rather than thinking in purely traditional ways. While legal letters can be impactful, we found great success by following up each letter with a personal phone call to listen, provide reassurance, and negotiate constructively. It’s my belief that a more human approach has often served us well.  

I also learned there are far more effective, scalable sales processes available than my traditional phone and in-person meeting approach. After some extremely helpful feedback and coaching from Dee, I shifted my outreach method completely. I began sending personalised voice notes and WhatsApp messages before making a call, responding to inbound inquiries across platforms, and calling directly on WhatsApp where a prospect had now seen a message, heard my voice, and could go into the business Whatsapp profile to see who it was getting a hold of them. Sometimes sense is not common. 

The increased response rate was immediate and noticeable – it was easier for busy prospects to trust a message they could respond to on their own time, rather than an unsolicited cold call. Instead of feeling like they were being harassed by a random salesperson, they felt a real person was taking the time to understand their situation and offer relevant help. It became common for deals to close either the same day or the very next day rather than the previous average of 7 days. Remarkably, some deals even closed entirely over WhatsApp, with no meeting or phone call required, which seemed unbelievable to me at first based on how I had done things in the past.

Since adopting this new outreach process, we’ve assisted over 30 satisfied clients in just three months, with many ongoing active cases and repeat customers. We’ve expanded our team as well, bringing on a legal intern who has amplified our research capabilities and thoroughness. We’ve partnered with a major national law firm to accept client referrals, and a firm of licensed conveyancers to assist home buyers and sellers, and are in the process of adding an in-house solicitor to the team so we can provide an even wider range of legal services in-house and take on more complex commercial clients. To further build credibility and transparency into our processes, we are creating written guides, case studies, and documentation explaining exactly how our services work. I am also now tasked with conducting educational podcast interviews with legal professionals specialised in certain practice areas so potential clients can hear directly from experts. And despite this rapid growth, new client inquiries continue to pour in every day through word-of-mouth, referrals, and organic searches.

One of the greatest lessons from this entire experience came less than a week ago, as we were acquiring new clients at an even faster rate. When you have a huge volume of day-to-day tasks, focus becomes a scarce resource and it’s easy to get lost in the weeds. I realised from a simple but profoundly insightful phrase Dee said – “There’s working on the business, and there’s working in the business.” I had been so heads-down and consumed working on immediate day-to-day legal work and sales that I neglected to proactively carve out time to work on longer-term strategic business growth. But without regularly stepping back to assess the bigger picture, it’s impossible to build a truly scalable business. This was an urgent realisation that I needed to fundamentally change how I allocate my time and priorities.

In summary, as I said at the outset, my time at Pearl Lemon has provided me the space and support to grow tremendously, often to an extent I only appreciate when looking back and taking stock. It’s only been eight months, which somehow feel like they’ve flown by. I genuinely cannot envision where I will be eight months from now after this intense trial-by-fire period of rapid personal and professional growth. What I can say for certain is that, I truly feel like anything is possible if I stay committed to learning, listen to those wiser than me, and pour my full heart into everything I do. The possibilities seem endless.